SINGAPORE: A martial arts exponent was sentenced yesterday to 34 and a half years in jail and 12 strokes of the rotan for the 2017 death of his 5-year-old daughter and for abusing her and her younger brother for almost two years.
For almost two years, the young siblings endured abuse and neglect from their father.
This included being locked up naked in the toilet for almost 10 months.
Singapore-based media agency CNA reported that their father, who had training in silat, taekwondo and aikido, would repeatedly punch, slap, kick and cane the children, treating them as "punching bags" for his frustration.
The girl died of a head injury in August 2017, after her father reportedly smacked her face up to 20 times in the toilet where the two children were kept all day.
She weighed just 13.2kg at the time of her death.
The 44-year-old man cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the identity of the victim's surviving brother, the report said.
It said the victim's name was previously protected, but yesterday the judge allowed her to be identified by her first name, Ayeesha, "so that society may remember her".
CNA reported the judge, Aedit Abdullah, as saying the lengthy sentence was unprecedented, but the said the man had subjected his children to "inhumane, disgusting abuse", and that his punishment had to reflect the "abhorrence and disgust of the community".
"The primary consideration is retribution: It is punishment to reflect the state's denouncing of such loathsome and sickening acts. Others must also be severely deterred from committing any abuse of this kind."
The man was originally on trial for murder in Ayeesha's death but the prosecution changed the charge to a reduced one of culpable homicide.
The man then pleaded guilty to six charges — one of culpable homicide, four of child abuse and one of disposing evidence.
The report said he wept as details of the abuse were read out loud, and when videos of him hitting Ayeesha and her brother at home were shown to those in court.
It said the prosecution is reviewing the case against Ayeesha's stepmother, who was named as a co-accused in the charges of confining the children to the toilet but had previously testified as a prosecution witness.
